Get a Text From a TikTok Recruitment Center? It's a Scam, and Here's What You Need to Know

In today's economy, everyone's looking for the next high-paying job. Wages are down compared to cost of living, and cost of living keeps rising at an alarming rate. So when a good job offer comes along, you don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, right? Unfortunately, in today's high-scam environment, you have to.

People have found themselves in receipt of texts in recent months that say they come from a "TikTok Recruitment Center" and offer the recipient a job. Sound too good to be true? That's because it's a scam. Here's what you need to know.

The text promises to help you live the dream. A "TikTok Recruitment Center" or "Recruiter" has just discovered your content or your resume, and is eager to offer you a job. This job is usually high paying, with some offering $400 per day for just one hour of work.

Others promise outrageous commission-based pay that goes up the more content you create. Sometimes they aren't looking for content creators but tell you they're searching for something closer to your wheelhouse, such as technical writing or bookkeeping. Unfortunately, it's all a scam.

Recruiters won't cold text you without having contacted you through a website or phone call first. Always verify the numbers that are communicating with you, and assume that job offers that sound too good to be true definitely are. While there are certainly offers out there that will meet your needs, cold texting out of the blue is generally not how those job offers find you. Be aware and be on your guard; scammers are good at what they do.

Over the years, phone-based scams have escalated in complexity. For awhile, the most popular scam was calling someone who was elderly and telling them their child was in jail and needed money sent to a certain account to set them free. Or that their child had been injured, was unconscious, and needed money for surgery.

Now that texting has become such a prevalent form of communication, the scams have evolved accordingly. One popular scam involves engagement phishing. Scammers send out a text with something generic like, "Hey" or "I didn't see you at the restaurant, are you here?" And when the recipient responds, it shows that scammer that the number is an active recipient. From there they may strike up a conversation and try to create a fake bond.

There are several ways to spot scammers. One, they often use broken English, although that's not a definitive way of determining if someone is a scammer or not. Two, they often seem happy and willing to discuss personal details with someone they just admitted to accidentally texting. So make sure you keep your private information private until you really know someone.

They may send a link, especially if they're posing as a business. If someone texts or emails you a link to login from, make sure you know and can trust the source. Or Google the website yourself and go through your browser rather than clicking on the link.

Again, if something seems too good to be true, it often is. Friends do occasionally fall out of the sky and land in your lap, and wrong number texts have led to friendships over the years. But in general, most people trying to strike up a friendship with a "wrong number" text is looking to get information from you and potentially money.

So always make sure to confirm who you're talking to, don't send money, and if you're convinced that someone in authority is reaching out to you about a loved one's jail or injury, Google the number for the appropriate authority and call them directly yourself. The Better Business Bureau offers this guide to spotting text scams.